The invention is directed to aerosol whipped cream dispensers utilizing tilt valves, wherein the valve is opened by tilting the valve spout. More particularly, the invention is directed towards an improved aerosol tilt valve having xe2x80x9cfast fillxe2x80x9d characteristics and improved flow characteristics from the valve spout.
Aerosol tilt valves are well known in the art. Generally, a common type of aerosol tilt valve comprises a hollow valve stem that has a valve actuator or spout mounted on top of the stem. The valve stem includes an annular body portion at its base which is disposed within the aerosol container. The valve stem is positioned such that it emerges through a central opening in a pedestal portion of a mounting cup. Underneath the pedestal is a gasket which encircles an orifice in the annular body portion of the hollow valve stem and acts to seal the orifice when the valve is in a closed position. Beneath the gasket and clinched within the pedestal portion of the mounting cup is a valve body. The valve body surrounds the annular base of the valve stem. A spring disposed within the valve body biases the valve stem against the gasket to create a normally closed valve position. Typically, the valve body includes a dip tube which functions to deliver the product/propellent to the interior of the valve. The valve is opened by pushing the actuator laterally, causing the valve stem to tilt and thereby to separate the gasket from the valve stem orifice. A pressurized mixture of product/propellent is then free to exit the valve flowing through the valve body into the orifice in the valve stem and out through the hollow stem. The valve actuator which encloses the stem typically includes an expansion chamber to promote foaming of the dispensed product and may also include a flow deflector to improve foaming, reduce sputtering, and/or direct flow of the product/propellent mixture.
An early example of a tilt valve of the type described above is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,298 to Briechle, issued in 1964. This patent was directed to a tilt valve suitable for manufacture by high volume production techniques. A more recent example of an aerosol tilt valve is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,755 to Bonewald et al, issued in 1996. This patent describes certain features which appear to reduce the likelihood of valve stem breakage, a common problem with some earlier designs. Although, past tilt valve designs have proven satisfactory for most uses, there is a desire for improvement in the art. In the case of valves intended for dispensing whipped cream, there is a need for a valve which allows for faster dispensing of the whipped cream product. Further, previous valve actuators for use in dispensing whipped cream have not proven entirely satisfactory in that the actuators tend to produce excessive sputtering of the dispensed product. Sputtering indicates that the propellent gas and whipped cream product are not being efficiently mixed in the actuator. Sputtering causes particles of foamed product to randomly exit the actuator in an uncontrollable manner. Sputtering both wastes product and due to the random exit pattern creates undesirable xe2x80x9cmessxe2x80x9d placing additional xe2x80x9cclean-upxe2x80x9d burdens on the consumer. Thus, there is a need for a valve actuator which minimizes sputtering.
The present invention addresses certain problems of the prior art by providing an improved xe2x80x9cfast fillxe2x80x9d aerosol tilt valve with an actuator that reduces sputtering. The improved valve includes a valve body having a plurality of radially spaced slots formed in its base. The plurality of slots provide for substantially increased flow area over prior art valves, which typically have only one or two small circular orifices in the valve body and therefore have limited ability to discharge product rapidly from an aerosol container. By contrast, the slotted valve body of the present invention allows for substantially more rapid discharge of the whipped cream product. The present invention aerosol valve may also include a multi-pronged flow deflector. In the exemplary embodiment, a Y-shaped or three-pronged flow deflector is disposed withing the expansion chamber of the valve actuator. The Y-shaped flow deflector provides a substantial, unexpected, decrease in sputtering of the dispensed product when compared to commonly available prior art actuators. In other embodiments, the invention may include flow deflectors, where the number of prongs varies from about three to about six prongs. These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying exemplary drawings.